Get the new trends for spring/summer 2010 perfectly made in our fashionably designs

Our Eco Tip – Sponsor A Sheep

"Wool from Germany goes hand in hand with countryside conservation." That is both the motto of this project and the reason why the German wool industry has created this initiative, the idea of which is to raise awareness of domestic products among German consumers.
The aim of this new sheep sponsorship scheme is to provide support for sheep breeders working in the Swabian Mountains biosphere, situated to the south east of Stuttgart, while providing consumers with a documentation of the entire wool production chain in Germany, from the raw material to the processed and ready-to-knit finished product.

If you are interested in supporting the project, please visit its website, www.schafpate.de, where you will find all you need to know about taking out a sheep sponsorship. In return for your participation, as a sheep sponsor you will receive small courtesy gifts in the form of products from your adopted sheep. How is this possible? Sheep herders are equipped with global positioning (GPS) systems, and all position data is posted into the Internet via GPS trackers. Sponsors are therefore able to see where their "future pullover suppliers" are currently grazing!
What is more, you can even knit your own pullover from "your" sheep's Schoeller + Stahl wool.

Cashmere goat – fine wool from a rough terrain
The cashmere goat is a subspecies of the domestic goat, an example of the wild goat species known for its extreme hardiness. Originating from Tibet and the Himalayas, the cashmere goat’s current habitat stretches from China through Kirgizstan to Uzbekistan, but the subspecies has also been bred in Europe since the nineteenth century. There are around twenty subspecies to the cashmere goat, all of which are a source of highly sought-after cashmere wool – a type of wool that is much finer than the finest sheep’s wool; in fact, cashmere wool is one of the finest wool types known. A cashmere goat is not a specific breed, but rather a collective term for goats with that especially downy undercoat. There is no particular colouration to the coat, either – there are white, black, grey-brown and multicoloured cashmere types, while white goats are especially popular in Europe as their wool is easy to dye. The wool from these goats – also known as cashmere wool – consists of extremely fine fibres combed from the goat’s undercoat at the end of winter. This wool is one of the most valued textiles that nature has to offer, which is why it is often blended with other high-quality wools such as Merino wool.

Portrait Sonia Rykiel

Sonia Rykiel née Flis (b. 25 May 1930, Paris, France) is a French fashion designer. Ethnically a Polish Jew, Sonia Rykiel was born in Paris, France in 1930. At the age of 17, she was employed to dress the window displays in a Parisian textile store. In 1953 Sonia married Sam Rykiel, owner of a boutique selling elegant clothing. In 1962 she just couldn't find any soft sweaters to wear when she was pregnant. So she used a supplier to her husband from Venice to design her own. Sonia Rykiel created her first maternity dresses and tiny sweater. The sweater is her symbol and she was crowned "Queen of Knits" by the Americans in 1967. The sweater went back 7 times for alterations before she was satisfied with it. From then, she has experimented with seams inside out, took away the hem and lining, and created a range of fragrances of which '7e Sens' was the first. This first creation was called the Poor boy Sweater, and she started selling it from her husbands label "Laura". It made the cover of ELLE fashion magazine, and brought her fame. She later became the first designer to put seams on the outside of a garment, and to print words on her sweaters. In particular, she favours long clinging sweaters or small cropped pullovers, large rolled-back cuffs and long shawls. Her colours are usually beige, grey, dark blue and charcoal. Rykiel has written many books, including an A to Z of fashion, and a collection of children’s stories. In 1980 she was voted one of the world's 10 most elegant women. She proved that knitwear can follow any trend. Rykiel also hit the current idea of the big soft fun fur done as a huge bubble of colour, in her case baby pink, purple knitted fox or teal-blue Mongolian lamb. During Paris Fashion Week in October 2003, Sonia Rykiel showed her own collection for next spring. There were also gorgeous ruffled dresses in vintage floral and polka dot prints and smart hounds tooth coats. Sonia and her daughter Nathalie have decided to bring Paris to New York. In February 2005 Henri Bendel launched an in-store shop for the Sonia Rykiel Woman line. It will almost certainly be as successful as in France. There are three Sonia Rykiel boutiques in the U.S. and they are in Boston, New York and Guam. In December 2009, Sonia Rykiel and H&M introduced a collection of underwear, "Sonia Rykiel pour H&M", the first of two masstige operations with the Swedish retailer (the second will be available in February 2010)[1]. A prestigious event was held at the [Grand Palais] in Paris to celebrate the event. Rykiel collaborated with impresario and performer Malcolm McLaren on the song "Who the Hell is Sonia Rykiel?" on McLaren's 1995 album Paris.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Breezy natural open-knit – for everyone that’s up for it  

Knit yourself into the next season – with the new yarns for inspiration. Soft, smooth fabrics are just right for soothing the skin in the summer, giving a comfy note to that open-knit look.
Gloss and structural effects will give your knitwear a more eye-catching appearance; there are no limits to the colours available – from nautical red, white and blue to contrasty black and white, all-natural with a hint of the romantic to a mardi gras festival of colour, there’s a combination to match anyone’s taste in cuts from tight to relaxed to add to the attraction. So get your needles out in anticipation of summer, and a new woollen item you’ll love to wear.

Where does the “black sheep” expression actually come from?

Everyone’s heard it, we’ll probably all admit to having said it one time or another – “That’s the black sheep of the family,” the odd one out, the square peg, the misfit. This expression comes from values and standards that used to apply in sheep breeding; wool from white sheep had a higher value simply because it was easier to dye. This went as far as wool from one black sheep drastically cutting a whole flock’s wool value, so black sheep were culled from the flock during breeding to keep the flock’s wool value up.

<< back